Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

342 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
number together, but "seemed to lie loose in the earth "
or " confused among buildings with which they did not belong,"
* he came to the conclusion that this hill with its two
principal strata, which I
had declared to be the probable site
of the temple library, was " the home of well-to-do citizens,
rather than the site
of the great public building of the city,"
and abandoned it towards the middle of March, " because
he had ceased to find tablets in paying quantities."
It was about the same time that the southeastern wing of
the mounds on the other side of the canal (VI, and the
ridge immediately to the northwest of it) began to yield
The prospect of a
tablets " in an extraordinary manner."
more rapid increase of the coveted inscriptions being thus
given, all the " tablet diggers " were transferred at once to
this new promising locality.
Before many weeks had elapsed,
more than 5,000 tablets and fragments had been gathered,
so that with regard to the mere number of clay documents
recovered, Peters might well be pleased with the success
which he had scored. Without troubling himself about the
methodical examination and removal of the highest strata,
which in the previous year had yielded contracts of the
late Babylonian and Persian periods, he cut " soundingtrenches
at various points in the interior, where the water
had washed out deep gullies." In every instance he came
upon rooms of mud brick containing " quantities of tablets,"
mixed with earth and grotesque clay figures of Bel and
his consort. There was in particular one chamber, thirtvtwo
feet
long by sixteen feet wide, which was literally filled
with them. So numerous- were the tablets there " that it
took thirty or forty men four days to dig them out and
bring them into camp." For the most part they were unbaked,
and lay in fragments on the floor. But as the
ashes observed in connection with them clearly indicated,
they originally " had been placed around the walls of the
1
Comp. ibidem, pp. 200-203.